Ultrasound imaging is a medical imaging technique for imaging organs and soft tissues in a human body. Ultrasound imaging uses non-invasive high frequency sound waves to produce images, which may be viewed as static or real-time motion two-dimensional (2D) images, static three-dimensional (3D) images, and/or four-dimensional (4D) images (i.e., 3D real-time motion images).
Sonographers are under pressure to efficiently perform ultrasound examinations while fully capturing the clinical details needed to analyze a patient. The workflow of a sonographer, however, is often interrupted by adjustments needed to highlight certain aspects that cannot be readily identified in a real-time acquisition. For example, while acquiring lower quality real-time 2D or 4D image data, a sonographer may desire to intermittently acquire higher quality 2D, 3D, 4D, or spatio-temporal image correlation (STIC) style acquisition images, e.g., STIC or electronic STIC (eSTIC) images, or images of different acquisition types, such as color or B-Flow frames. To do so, sonographers typically stop acquiring the real-time 2D or 4D image data, enter scan parameters and settings for the secondary acquisition, and perform the secondary scan. Once the secondary scan is complete, the sonographer may view and interact with the secondary image(s) prior to beginning a new real-time 2D or 4D scan. This workflow with frequent interruptions for acquiring separate image acquisitions is inefficient.
Another problem exists for image review workflows. Specifically, after the ultrasound examination is complete, the separate image acquisitions may be viewable by selecting a particular image acquisition from a list of acquisitions. However, due to the frequent interruptions, a large number of acquisitions may be available, making it difficult to navigate between acquisitions and identify an acquisition of interest.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with some aspects of the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.